Employers can help to ensure that traditional positions of employment are made available to older people when they look for work.

Considering that searching for jobs among older people is often carried out by people on their own, official support services also have a role to play in helping prepare older people for work and connecting them with appropriate job opportunities.

•Both stakeholders are key to keeping older people from experiencing lower confidence, frustration, and disillusionment with the process of getting back to work

Feeding into the work of the Age and Intergenerational Workplaces campaign, Business in the Community has been developing a series of reports to bring to public attention the plight of more than a million older people who have been pushed out of the labour market for reasons beyond their control and are now struggling to find employment.

The research is being carried out in collaboration with The International Longevity Centre-UK (ILC-UK) and the first report found that more than a million over 50s have been pushed out of the workforce for reasons beyond their control. But what happens to those older people who have lost work and want to return to the workplace?

The second research paper ‘The Missing Million: Pathways back into employment’ demonstrates that older people are more likely to remain out of work once they lose a job and if they want to find new employment, the over 50s have to rely on their own resources and networks.

But the over 50s continue to face age discrimination and they are increasingly having to start their own businesses or go into unpaid work, which is not necessarily what they want to do.